Officially launched in January, 2012, my fiber arts studio is all about the designer that's lurking in all of us. It's often a question of confidence and the feeling that these artisanal crafts are complex and unattainable. Other comments I hear often concern TIME, as in, not enough.
My goal is to help you jump in there and JUST DO IT! You can find little pockets of unused time that you may be wasting with TV, your smartphone, waiting rooms, and waiting for your kids during their dance lessons or soccer game.
Knitting especially is portable, and I'll make sure there are plenty of cool little projects that you can take along with you and that require only small "cheat sheets", not huge reams of written directions.
I'm a big fan of charts, for knitting, crochet, blackwork, crewel, and cross stitch. They're much more concise than written directions, and help you to visualize what you're actually doing. "Reading your knitting", and being a "thinking knitter" are goals our Knitting Grandma, Elizabeth Zimmermann set for us, and Auntie Barbara Walker took things further with her wonderful four-volume Treasury of Knitting Patterns.
I'll rate the difficulty level of the projects, but if you want the finished result enough, you'll get over the humps, I guarantee it!
True Story: The first time I sewed a seam on a sewing machine, I PULLED THE FABRIC THROUGH THE MACHINE.....BACKWARDS!!!! My seam had curlicues and knots all the way, and fighting those feed dogs made it an aerobic sport!! Okay, so I was 11 years old at the time, but I didn't let it stop me. Not even when the black dress pants I was making for a party ended up as a mermaid-tail-like TUBE!! I was 13 by then, but clearly remember what it was like to rip out about six feet of black thread on black fabric at 2am in an ill-lit family room/basement.
So, I've been there! I've had lots of misses, and a nice big handful of hits. More wacky anecdotes will be peppered in future posts, I'm sure. Just remember that it's only a small portion of talent involved. The huge factor is determination, desire, wanting the finished product.
